A new kind of climate refugee is emerging

Haoua Ali Beta is a new kind of refugee.

She left her home in northeastern Cameroon because of a conflict, like many other refugees, but the conflict in question was driven by climatic changes, not geopolitics.

Haoua's family had reared cattle for generations, but over the past couple of decades, the landscape around her had grown increasingly inhospitable.

"During our grandparents' time, the harvest was good," she explains from the Guilmay refugee camp in southwestern Chad. "These days farming is not good. You know when you overexploit the land for many years, the land's fertility is depleted."

A lack of regular rainfall made the day-to-day task of finding enough water for her family's animals increasingly difficult. "The cattle cannot survive without water," explains the 50-year-old, peeling vegetables into a pot on a mat outside her temporary brick home. "The cattle had to move further away to get water."

That movement of cattle brought the